Lady of the Butterflies

by Fiona Mountain

Reviewed by Margaret Donsbach

Lady of the Butterflies spins a historical romance around the life of Eleanor Glanville, for whom the now-rare Glanville fritillary was named. The daughter of a staunch Puritan who fought in Cromwell's army, she inherited his estate in marshy Somerset in 1666 at age twelve.

Growing up, Eleanor is isolated by her widowed father's Puritan convictions, now badly out of style. Sweets, Christmas celebrations and colorful clothes, pleasures enjoyed by the other local children, are forbidden to her. But her father educates her in Latin and science, sophisticated treats to which most girls have no access. And he introduces her to butterflies. "They are a token, Eleanor, a promise. A caterpillar begins as a greedy worm, which surely represents the baseness of our life on earth. Then they are entombed, just as we are entombed in the grave. They emerge on glorious wings, just as the bodies of the dead will rise at the sound of the last trumpet on the final Judgment Day."

The life cycle of butterflies is poorly understood, superstitions rife: might they be the souls of the dead? Many think a woman who collects and studies them extremely odd, possibly mad. So although Eleanor's passion for them is her salvation amid life's disappointments, it may also be her undoing.

Lady of the Butterflies lingers over the inexperienced Eleanor's head-over-heels attraction to her first husband, her infatuation with his best friend, and her friendship with London apothecary and naturalist James Petiver. The characters are complex enough to be interesting. Heavy foreshadowing makes the romance layer of the plot rather predictable; some readers may grow impatient with the many pages lavished on it. Sex scenes are explicit but tasteful. Readers who enjoy this style of romance and have a soft spot for butterflies are likely to find this novel irresistibly charming. Those who merely tolerate romance may find it worthwhile for the butterfly layer of the plot alone, a delight as rare as the Glanville fritillary. (2009; 533 pages, including an Author's Note discussing the history behind the novel and an Acknowledgments with an extensive bibliography)